The Amazing Race

One exciting thing that happened since last time is that we finally got our name tags that we’ll wear in Hong Kong!! They have one half in English and the other half in Cantonese, so pretty much they’re super cool. And also it means that we’re getting closer and closer to finally making it out into the mission field! Which while is really exciting, also makes my stomach twist into knots just thinking about all of the change and new experiences that I will have. It also means that I will actually have to know how to speak Cantonese!

Last week for April Fool’s day the other missionaries and I played some “pranks” on our teachers. As a missionary, you aren’t really allowed to do pranks so it was really just us exasperating our teachers slightly. We switched the Hong Kong flag to the Macau one (which we thought was HILARIOUS) and then talked in slightly wrong tones to our teachers. We only kept it up for a little bit though, because it turns out that it gets old pretty quickly, haha! But for the rest of the day we continued to say “April Fools” at every little thing that happened. Ah, the things that you have to resort to when you’re a missionary! We asked our teachers if we were the funniest class that they’ve taught and one agreed that we were while the other said “we were pretty funny” which I’m going to take as a yes 😉 I’m not sure how we all ended up in the same district, and maybe it wasn’t the greatest idea, but we all got really lucky!

So in our apartment building there are some “give away” boxes in the commons area where people put things that they don’t want for others to take. It’s become somewhat of a competition between me and one of the sisters in my district to race to it each day. Really, it’s nothing special. Its contents are usually nothing more than half-used shampoo bottles, random articles of clothing that probably came straight from a thrift store, and if you’re lucky, maybe an envelope or two crumpled at the bottom. But for some reason by the end of the day all of our energy is exerted into racing to this box. I really think at this point it’s more for the thrill that we get in beating the other to the box than it is for anything that we ever find inside it (though one time I found some laundry detergent and that was a pretty sweet steal). This sister’s mom sent her a mini basketball game for Easter and we played that against each other one night just to further our competitive natures. You’ve got to find ways to have fun!

This week for our Sunday evening devotional BYU Vocal Point came and we got to hear from them and listen to them perform some of their songs. It was a really neat experience as they all talked about some experiences that they’d had from their missions and gave us bits of advice. One of the members talked about how important it is to remember who you are and what you were called to do. Not only just as a missionary, but for the rest of your life! And to top it all off at the end we all got to sing a song with them. So yeah, I got to sing with Vocal Point!! I am glad that I was able to give them such an honor.

This weekend was also General Conference as many of you already know, and it was amazing! I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes it’s hard to stay awake or completely focused for the whole thing. But thanks to the chairs at the MTC it was nearly impossible to get comfortable enough not to! But really, it is always so great to hear the messages that these wonderful servants of God have thought and prayed about for many hours just for us. One of the things that I really liked was in Elder Renlund’s talk when he said that trials get more difficult when we distance ourselves from God. Sometimes when life gets hard we let go of God so that we can focus on whatever it is that we have to deal with or work through. But He is always there for us and wants to help us through our difficulties. We never just have to rely on our own strength. As Elder Uchtdorf said, the Lord will search for the lost and strengthen the weary. But it is up to us to reach out to Him and take hold of His outstretched hand. If you didn’t watch conference or if you missed some of it, I invite you to go back and watch or read it!